PeterRS

Aha! And obviously that is where the passengers and crew of MH 370 will be found. But I still want to know who killed JFK and why! I could make a fortune on the book, movie and tv series.

If I knew or had any reasonable conclusion I would have specified a time. I'm sure you realise I am grasping at straws as much as everyone else. I have no idea when Thailand will get to 70% vaccinated or whatever other percentage of the population is regarded as ideal for opening up. For your infomraion, the interval for the locally made AZ vaccine is 12 weeks. I just know that with the Prime Minister only a few weeks ago having revealed what he should have told the public many months ago - that the roughly 70 million AZ vaccine doses being manufactured locally and due for delivery between June and December will not in fact all be for Thailand since over 50% are earmarked for overseas (I believe negotiations are underway to have the Thailand amount increased but have seen no result) - and, so far as we know, not a great many other millions of doses are scheduled to come into the country soon with the exception of the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, the government has a huge problem. The Prime Minster has even admitted this. In April and May he was saying publicly that the 70% would be reached by September. By early June that had been moved back to the end of December. Even that now seems very overoptimistic. Young people still remain very much at the back of the queue and they seem just as prone to the delta variant as older people. I know of about a dozen guys in their 20s who cannot get a date for vaccinations. One has got an August date for his first Sinopharm vaccination but only because he knows a nurse at a hospital. Even then he has to pay 3,200 baht for both. Having been jobless for many months he has had to beg and borrow that sum. What of all the boys in Pattaya, I wonder? I thought the organisation bringing in Sinopharm was doing at as a charitable exercise since a great many Thais will find it hard to pay that price. That apart, as you rightly point out, the Chinese vaccines do not seem to be as effective as the others. I think you have discounted the point made in my earlier post about the CDC's latest pronouncement. So we really do not know how effective present vaccines are other than keeping many people out of hospital. But surely the CDC's comment about vaccinated people still being contagious with the delta variant, does that not throw a rather big spanner into predictions for the future? And what if, as is surely likely, more variants appear? I wish. But you know the background to the awarding of the contract for AZ vaccines. Do you seriously believe that the Prime Minister is going to change the rules given the principals involved with the AZ production - and these include his dreadful Minister of Health, Anutin, who is from an opposition party? Anutin could have involved the government's own department which for years has manufactured various vaccines, some for the WHO. But he elected not to. Changing the rules now would be politically dangerous in my view. As for yet another lockdown, since the Prime Minister was terrified of the effect on his public image if he accepted the advice from all his medical experts to cancel Songkran this year, I cannot see him shutting down the country more than he already has. So I remain unconvinced that this country will be able to open up for a long time. I'll hazard a guess. Mid 2022. Sadly!

I definitely agree that wait and see is not only the best strategy, it is the only one. With nearly 18,000 new cases yesterday - and those are only the ones we know about; the chances are there are a lot more - the government is nowhere near in control of the virus. Add the lack of vaccines and the very deep unrest being expressed on Thai social media, I would stay clear of Thailand for quite a long time. Worse, the CDC in the USA today claims that the delta variant is more dangerous that they have been aware to date. One chart on a CDC presentation yesterday shows that it is "as contagious as chickenpox . . . and spreads more easily than the common cold, the 1918 flu and small pox." Worryingly, it then states that in one recent outbreak in Massachusetts "vaccinated and unvaccinated people had nearly the same amount of virus recovered from test samples, indicating that vaccinated people are just as contagious as unvaccinated people when it comes to the delta variant." A summary slide states that the CDC should "acknowledge that the war has changed." This is just one variant. How many more variants are likely to appear over the next 6 - 9 months? The CDC presentation first appeared in The Washington Post. https://www.npr.org/2021/07/29/1022580439/a-cdc-internal-report-says-the-delta-variant-is-more-transmissible-than-a-cold

The movie The Most Beautiful Boy has received mostly excellent reviews. On a limited release so far, it has a 76% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film has been sold for distribution in several countries. No idea if it will ever appear in Thailand. The Guardian: A desperately unhappy story, sympathetically told The Scotsman: Though full of sadness, it's ultimately a portrait of just how resilient a person can be in the face of so much pain. Ian Thomas Malone: a harrowing, deeply moving experience that captures a star as gravity forces it back to earth IndieWire: A crushing story of innocence destroyed by stardom Financial Times: A deeply sad documentary about fame, its casualties and exploitation of children.

The spy mission theory fits in with my belief. I forgot that CIA agents wore badges advertising their profession. Besides, if the aircraft had indeed landed safely, where is the plane now and where are the passengers? And who concocted the recordings of the Soviet fighter pilots and their ground controllers? Don't most of us just love conspiracy theories? Perhaps it's time we opened a thread about who actually killed JFK and why. I know, but i'm not telling! 🤣

It definitely is. Not sure about Pattaya but room rents in Bangkok have come down considerably in the last few months. A friend of mine recently moved to a large two-room condo in a nice area with a pool for 4,000 baht a month. He shares it with two other friends. He says modest rooms in Pattaya should presently be available for about 2,000 baht per month.

Spurred on by a couple of questions from readers, I’ll add what little more I know/speculate about the mystery of KAL007. Even with files being opened up after the Cold War, it still remains the stuff of conspiracy theories with many many issues, most crucial, still unsolved. Here are just a few. 1. Prior to the downing of the 747, there had been five documented cases of incursion by non-Soviet aircraft into Soviet airspace since the first in 1952. Perhaps ironically the last of these incidents also involved Korean Airlines when a flight intruded into Soviet airspace above a restricted military area south of Murmansk. The Korean plane was shot down but was able to land with two just deaths. Surprisingly there was almost no adverse international reaction. Indeed, the president of South Korea thanked the Soviet Union for the speedy return of the surviving passengers and crew. As a result, international norms suggested the prohibiting of shooting an intruding aircraft just because it was in one’s airspace. In other words, “exclusive sovereignty” was no excuse. But in November 1982, the Soviet Union enacted a law authorising the Soviet Air Defence Forces to use armed force “against violators of the USSR state border”, whether they threaten violence or not. The USA disagreed with this law claiming that mere suspicion about intent does not justify military action. 2. Why was the Anchorage VOR beacon (very high frequency omni-directional beacon) providing location information to aircraft and enabling it to keep on course out of action when KAL007 took off? This provides information for up to 200 miles distance. Such equipment requires annual maintenance. Allegedly it was being maintained on that night. Might that have been deliberate? 3. Why did the USA have its RC-135 Surveillance aircraft flying very near an off-course passenger airliner heading for Soviet airspace? At one point they were so close that their radio images merged for ten minutes. 4. Why did the captain of KAL007 radio Tokyo flight control centre “We have safely passed over southern Kamchatka. The plane is proceeding normally”? The words “safely over” are deeply suspicious. This recording allegedly proves that the captain knew perfectly well he had flown over Soviet airspace. 5. US and subsequently Japanese air traffic controllers were responsible for the flight of KAL007. Why did neither group of controllers even once attempt to warn the plane that it was not just off course, but massively off course? 6. Following the crash, the USA and Japan disclosed tape recordings of the radio transmissions of the Soviet fighter pilots. Thus both were perfectly well aware of KAL007’s perilous position. Yet again neither communicated any concern to the doomed plane. 7. While denying that KAL007 was on a spying mission, the USA conceded that it had violated Soviet airspace. 8. When the US Ambassador to the UN disputed the Soviet’s account, her presentation relied heavily on the recordings of radio conversations between the Soviet fighter pilots and their three ground control stations. These covered the last 30 minutes of KAL007’s flight. The Soviet Ambassador did not dispute these, although later Soviet commentators claimed they had been falsified. Yet despite this knowledge about the plane’s location, Ambassador Kirkpatrick never explained the lack of warning to the airline or its pilots. 9. The Report made public on 30 December 1983 by the technical experts of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) came to the conclusion that the route deviation was a result of pilot error re an incorrect computer input after leaving Anchorage. Strangely, and controversially, it concluded that civilian air traffic controllers could not have known about its major deviation and that military authorities who might have detected the deviation were not responsible for it https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1477&context=yjil 10. The last and most intriguing part of the mystery is that the world still does not know where the bodies and the remains of the aircraft are. Absolutely nothing was found. This is unlike any other aircraft lost over water – with the more recent exception of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370. The Soviets agreed that the location of the crash was Moneron Island. This is little more than 300 kms north of Hokkaido. Japanese ships were reasonably quickly at the scene. How is it even remotely possible that not one tiny piece of debris, not one body nor even one body part has ever been found? It belies belief that the Soviets could have farmed up all the wreckage in such a short period of time. And the Soviets always denied they had recovered any bodies. Yet two months after the crash, their divers were able to locate the black boxes. They find the black boxes but not one tiny scrap of wreckage? Even a US Navy-led search of the area revealed absolutely nothing. True? Or deliberately false? Relatives of the passengers and crew remained convinced for years that the only explanation is the aircraft must have landed intact somewhere on Soviet soil. Yet Soviet files opened years later revealed nothing. I agree with those South African pilots I met who believe KAL007 had to have been on a spying mission prompted by the US. But in the absence of so much detail, that can only be speculation. Curiouser and curiouser!

I thought Pornhub had been banned for some time in Thailand for including something about a certain family about whom nothing can be said!

Yesterday I watched the women's football (soccer for our North American readers) match between the USA and Australia. For the last few years we have heard all sorts of appeals that women in pro soccer should be paid as much as men and that the quality of the matches were as good and as exciting. I will no doubt be accused of being sexist, but I thought the whole match was dreadful. Not a word I would use lightly as I have been watching soccer since I was at university and really enjoy the game. In all those years I have seen superb matches and extremely poor matches. In my view yesterday a pair of high school teams could have played a lot better. The tactics in this game were incomprehensible, the ball skills frighteningly bad, the passing deplorable and the shots on goal all but pathetic. I'm sorry ladies, but as an advertisement for ladies being paid as much as their professional counterparts in the men's game, this was a frightful display!

There is no doubt that the Delta variant is affecting much younger people than before. My brother's 11-year old grand daughter became infected and had to spend 4 days in hospital.

The OP seems to focus particularly on click and paste news items without any comment attached to them. While my preference is always for a poster to add his own views, chunks from the news media can be useful for those who have not seen them. And if they do not like them, as with all posts they don't have to read them.

This ia a fantastic achievement, the more so as Garozzo had won the Gold in Rio. Fencing is not a very popular sport in Asia. Although it looks relatively simple and the bouts are usually over quickly. it is also a gruelling one. I took up fencing at University. After 15 minutes I would always be exhausted. I never felt anything like that playing my other sport, squash. Cheung gave up school when he was about 15 to concentrate on fencing. Now his dream has come true. I am sure it will give Hong Kong people much cheer after a miserable two years.

How wonderful that double world champion Tom Daley has won an Olympic Gold medal in this fourth summer Games. That achievement in the Synchronised High 10 m. Platform Dive is the realisation of a dream he had aged 11. Now one of the world's most famous gay athletes, married to screenwriter Dustin Lance Black ("Milk" for which he won an Oscar, "J. Edgar" about the feared FBI Director and his gay lover) and with a 4-year old son, Daley competed in Beijing in 2008 when he was just 13. He picked up 2 bronze medals London. Then in Rio, for the first time he failed to make the Finals of a major competition and was thrown into despair. With encouragement from his husband he fought back. Now at the age of 27 he has fulfilled his dream, beating the Chinese favourites with the last dive with his diving partner Matty Lee. What makes Daley's story so compelling is that he has fought adversity for much of his life. He was bullied at school, his adored father died of a brain tumour aged only 40, and he then faced the problems all famous people have in coming out. He did this on his own terms, no doubt encouraged by Black, with a impressive, matter-of-fact video issued in 2013. He has now become an advocate for the LGBTQ community. As he told the BBC - "When I was a little boy, I felt like an outsider and different," began Daley. "I felt I was never going to be anything because who I wasn't what society wanted me to be. "I hope that seeing LGBT people performing at the Olympic Games gives young kids belief and means they won't feel so frightened, scared and alone. "Whoever you are, no matter where you come from, you can become an Olympic champion - because I did it." Black, Daley and their son Robbie: Instagram photo

Maybe a good time to remember one of the greatest of all Olympic themed songs. Two mega stars, one an iconic pop singer, the other a legendary opera diva got together after it was announced that Barcelona would host the 1992 Olympics. An opera lover, Freddie Mercury had long admired Montserrat Caballe who had been born in Barcelona. Their 1987 duet, "Barcelona" was unique and a surprise hit around the world. Caballe originally had doubts but came to have a great respect for Mercury's talents. Even though Mercury had died in 1991, a recording of the duet was featured at the Olympic opening ceremony the following year.

I didn't think I'd like this. Can I have more please?

Mine too. Only just realised that the 1964 Tokyo Olympics were held in the much cooler month of October. Holding them at the height of summer it is not just the heat that will affect many of the athletes, it is the hellish humidity. It's worse there than Bangkok. I remember when the 2002 soccer World Cup was held jointly by Japan and South Korea. Many of the teams had a couple of weeks acclimatising in various hot relatively dry parts of the world. But the Football Associations seemed totally unaware that it is the humidity that is the killer when you have to run and run for 90+ minutes.

No offence taken at all. I merely failed to make the link between the 2000 crash and the Sydney incident. I am sure the advice you were given was correct had the aircraft been flying at a much slower speed and was perhaps banking. I have no expert backing for my view about the upper part of the rudder shearing off at high velocity behind the aircraft. As it was at supersonic speed when it happened, I merely cannot see how the broken section could possibly have flown off in a downwards direction. But your comment about your source reminded me that when it comes to accidents, even experts have not only differing views but sometimes wrong views. It brings to mind another fatal crash - yes, I can hear groans from some readers, sorry. Some will certainly remember the Soviet Union's shooting down of KAL007 on 1 September 1983 as it was approaching Japanese air space on a flight to Seoul from New York and Anchorage. This was a bizarre series of events about which there were many theories, even after the end of the Soviet Union when the Russian files were finally opened up for inspection by western experts. Soon after the crash, I was having drinks in one of my usual watering holes after work the Dickens Bar in Hong Kong's Excelsior Hotel. My friend and I were sitting at the bar when two others sat down beside us. It turned out they were pilots of South African Airways. Their conversation soon turned to KAL007. To encapsulate their comments, they said they were certain the Korean 747 must have been on a spying mission. That was certainly one of the theories floating around at the time, although in the years since then that has been superseded by one suggesting that the pilot made an obvious mistake after he left Anchorage by wrongly programming the computer. This error led to the aircraft progressively taking a course far to the west of the one on his flight plan. As a result he steered the aircraft first over the Soviet's Kamchatka Peninsula, re-entered international airspace before returning over Soviet Airspace above Sakhalin Island. By this time KAL007 had inexplicably deviated 300 miles off course as is shown on this map. The lower of the two routes has the identification beacons to help with navigation - In 1983 the Cold War was at its height. The Soviet Union was in crisis. Yuri Andropov had taken over on the death of Brezhnev the previous year. But Andropov himself was not in good health. In February he suffered total kidney failure. The country was mired in a war in Afghanistan which Andropov had opposed. The Soviet economy was in disastrous stagnation. The military was virtually the only part of the economy that the west believed might be on a par with its own. In America, President Reagan had recently dubbed the Soviet Union "an evil empire". He had also announced the start of the USA's "Star Wars" programme which would provide additional protection from attack by Soviet missiles. Meanwhile, the Soviet high command never believed a civilian airliner would overfly its airspace. So when KAL007 appeared on the radar there was chaos. They had no idea what to do. Eventually, with KAL007 about to leave airspace over the Kamchatka Peninsula, fighters were sent up to intercept it. But they were too late. As the 747 approached Sakhallin, however, they were on alert and two fighter jets were scrambled to approach it. Soon they were trailing the 747 about 4 miles to its rear. With its bulbous front, the 747 is a very distinctive aircraft. The fighter pilots could have identified it. On the other hand, being a night flight, all the window shades were probably down. It could, for all they knew, have been a cargo plane or one adapted for military use. However, years after the Soviet Union had died, the captain of one fighter jet claimed to be aware that there were two decks with windows on the KAL plane and that such an aircraft adapted for military use would have very few windows. They knew it was a passenger aircraft. One fighter pilot fired warning shots ahead of the Korean plane. Those in the cockpit, unaware of their position, clearly did not see or hear them. In fact they had just had clearance from air traffic control in Japan to ascend from 33,000 ft to 35,000 ft. When the 747 did not descend, there was more chaos in the Soviets air defence headquarters. They took the ascent to mean the 747 was taking avoiding action. With time running out, the fighter pilot fired two missiles. One exploded close to the 747. As was later discovered after the Russians released a great deal of information about the crash in 1992, the missile did not hit the 747. It exploded near the rear. Three of the four hydraulic cables were severed but the outer skin was not punctured, there was no loss of cabin pressure and the four engines continued to function. Indeed, the 747 continued flying for 12 whole minutes before the pilots lost all control and the aircraft spiralled to the ocean. It must have been the most horrific way to die. Making matters worse for the Koreans, Russian ships were first on the scene. Over months they reclaimed some of the wreckage including the black boxes. They refused to reveal this knowledge until 1992. I don't know enough to give much more information. Two things are clear, though. KAL007 was having difficulty communicating with Anchorage after the aircraft had reached its cruising altitude. So it had help from another KAL aircraft which was flying close behind on the same route. For whatever reason, it had no problem with flying on the scheduled flight plan route. But there was a third plane also very close by. This was one of America's spy planes, a Boeing RC-135, the military version of the 707. This was flying figure-of-eight patterns very close to KAL007. Coincidentally one of its '8s' coincided with the arrival of KAL007 in Soviet airspace. Could the fighter jets controllers have confused the two aircraft? It was known the USA wanted to find out what new air defence systems the Soviets might have been installed on Kamchatka and Sakhalin. It was also believed that there had secretly been a major missile installation much further inland but they did not know where. Could the USA military have created the deviation of KAL007 into Soviet airspace so as to lead to activation of alarm systems on that installation so providing the USA with a precise location? They would surely have assumed - erroneously - that the Soviets would not shoot down a civilian airliner. Other "whys?" soon emerged. Why did the Soviets first identify KAL007 as a military target? Why did KAL007 commence a climb to 35,000 ft. after the fighter jets warning shots? Why were no bodies ever found? What happened to them? It was known that one very right-wing conservative Congressman had been a passenger. But the Soviets claimed that no bodies were recovered. Equally the actions of both the USA and the Soviet Union immediately after the crash still need explanation. Without sufficient time even for a briefing on the crash, Reagan was on the airwaves calling it a "massacre" and a "crime against humanity." What did he know, how did he know it and when did he know it? Why, six hours after the crash, did the Korean authorities announce that the flight had landed safely on Sakhalin, as was quickly announced in print in The New York Times, thereby contradicting the President? Almost all this is speculation. KAL007 remains one of the greatest mysteries of the Cold War. My South African Airways pilots were 100% convinced KAL007 had been rigged for a spying mission. They believed there could be no other possible reason. After the Russians released their files, it became more clear that there had definitely been a problem with the 747's onboard computer and how it had been set. Whatever the truth, it plunged the world into a level of tension not been seen since the Cuban missile crisis.

Once cute young Japanese guide is all it will take. I remember my first ever visit. I had arrived on a Friday afternoon, jet-lagged after a few days in New York and then two in Los Angeles, knew no-one, spoke only a few words of the language and had a week-end to kill before meetings the following Monday. On Saturday morning, after doing a little sightseeing, I got off the subway to look at another area. As I was walking up the long steps into the summer sunlight along with seemingly half of the city, I noticed a tall guy in a bright white shirt going down along with the other half of the city. For a second our eyes locked. A couple of seconds later I turned to look down. He was doing the same looking at me. The crowds were such that we could not change direction. Once at the top I assumed he would have disappeared into the station. But from the top I could just make out that white shirt in the darkness. He was looking up. So what was I to do? I went down again. We chatted even though his English was not very good. We then met a few hours later, had dinner, he showed me where the ni-chome bars were, came back to my hotel and then spent the rest of the week end with me. Thereafter I loved the city, even though I never saw my first guide again. Simple!

I have no idea what you mean about my having put too much emphasis on the tyres. That information is provided in the Experts Report that I mention in the OP, it is included in Captain Hutchison's comments on the attached video and is further included in the official BEA Report. The tyre shredding was a vital reason for that particular crash. May I direct you to page 93 of the BEA Report (as linked in the OP) which points out that prior to the 2000 crash, there had been no less than 57 incidents involving Concorde tyre bursts - 30 on Air France aircraft and 27 on BA aircraft. Twelve of these bursts had resulted in "structural consequences on the wings and/or the tanks, of which six led to penetration of the tanks." A further 21 incidents were noted. Despite all this, neither airline had decided to change the type of tyres used on Concorde. This only occurred after the 2000 crash when stronger tyres less capable of shredding were designed and added. I am well aware of the Sydney incident. Exactly the same was to occur 3 years later on BA001 en route to New York on 19 March 1992. Below are photos of the structural damage to both from which it is easy to see that the breakage was to the upper rudders and virtually identical on both flights - 1989 Photo at Sydney airport after charter flight from Christchurch following in flight loss of rudder part 1992 Photo of BA001 on arrival in New York following in flight loss of rudder part Rudder failure or breakage played zero part in the 2000 AF crash. The important point here I suggest is that neither one of the above two rudder incidents involved loss of life. Even after the parts broke off, the flights carried on as normal with the crew unaware of what had happened and both landed safely at their destinations. We remember the 2000 crash simply because it caused a total loss of life and total destruction of the aircraft. With all respect, nothing that I have read indicates that either 'breakage' could have led to severing of fuel lines. As noted in the fuel tank locations in the OP, there is only one small fuel tank at the back of the aircraft - Tank #11. The Sydney bound aircraft was not over Sydney when the breakage occurred. Both accident reports make it clear the aircraft were in fact travelling over sea at supersonic speed when the rudder parts broke off. At that speed it would have been impossible for the broken parts to drop down and tear open the aft of the aircraft's structure. The parts themselves had a honeycomb structure and were relatively light in weight. The massive speed of the wind flowing off the wings would unquestionably have propelled them backwards at very considerable velocity. This from the NZ/Sydney accident report - "failure had been limited to the upper part of the rudder which is constructed from skin panels bonded to a honeycomb core." But I think the surprising issue in your post is that both rudder accidents were on BA aircraft. Whatever repairs BA made after the Tasman Sea incident were not sufficient to stop the same fault occurring a second time. Mercifully neither involved damage to a structurally essential part of the aircraft for the upper and lower rudders could operate independently if absolutely necessary.

Perhaps a cheap, trashy Barbara Cartland romance novel will help while away your time and dispel any fears. "The Wings of Ecstacy" sounds ideal LOL

With new threads about boys and sex a bit thin on the ground, perhaps one focusing on at least one of these topics might be of interest. Less about sex, though. From the time I was at school, I have been sort of obsessed with the male body. At first it was faces and I had my first 'crush' at the age of 12. Naturally nothing came of it as I was too backward in coming forward and the object of my desire seemed to have no interest. I was even seated next to him at the end of term Prize-giving. Oh, what might have been! It was not long before my eyes were gazing downwards, particularly on the sports fields - well, in the changing rooms - and at the school's pool. The length of some of those cocks was a constant joy, the more so when quite a few of the guys seemed to enjoy being gazed at while they played with them. Having made my first tentative rather furtive steps in gay sex, my twenties were hardly a riot as I was still in the closet. Then the riot started in my early 30s. I could not get enough of it and there were always plenty of young men around who felt the same way. My first ventures into a gay sauna were a revelation for all the sex that was available. I have written somewhere about visiting Night Thermos (correct name?) in Amsterdam, a very large one in New York and, best of all, the equally large Le Continental in Paris. I suppose it was really in Le Continental that my desire for Asian boys was sparked for there were many Vietnamese living in Paris, quite a number of whom were at the sauna. I think it was less the sex and more the sight of such beautifully smooth-skinned young Asian boys who were perfectly happy to walk around almost totally naked. That Paris experience came home to me when I visited central Vietnam early last year before borders were closed. With my partner unable to get time off, I was on my own. Almost as soon as I had reached Hoi An, a quite lovely mid 20s guy clicked me on one of the apps. He was in Danang, about 30 minutes away, but I had not intended sex to be any part of that trip. After Hoi An I was going up to the old Imperial capital of Hue or a few days before spending my last three days in Danang. So we arranged to meet up for a dinner when I got there. He was perfectly delightful. He became a sort of tour guide. On my last night I invited him to the hotel for a drink. Cocktails in the rooftop bar then morphed into a shower in my room. The ensuing 40 minutes or so all in the shower were amazing! Belatedly I have realised there is something about Vietnamese boys which is very special. But it was my first experience of an Asian sauna that really opened my eyes. On a business trip to Tokyo, a Japanese friend took me to Oban sauna in the Kabuki-cho district in Shinjuku. This still is a rather sleazy nightlife area, not gay, but right there was Oban, which I think was one of Tokyo's first gay saunas. It was relatively small inside but spotlessly clean. Walking up one floor after disrobing, I was amazed to find that most of the boys were walking around totally naked. A few had small towels that they held in front but they were in a small minority. It felt like I had arrived in heaven! After the ritual washing and a spell in a hot pool, I wandered around. Coming out of the steam room I bumped into a very handsome boy who featured in several gay magazines. I was even surprised that sex took place not in private cabins but in quite large open rooms with long mattresses on two sides. These were understandably dark but still light enough to see what was going on and who was doing what to whom! Sitting and just watching some action seemed to be very popular! Those entwined in sex had no problem with that. Over several decades I have attended other Japanese saunas, apart from the years when foreigners were forbidden, a belated attempt by the owners to keep HIV from spreading. My memory tells me that the sex was rarely great, with just two instantly stunning exceptions. It was the sight of so many absolutely wondrous beautiful bodies in glorious nudity that has stayed with me. There is always something more fascinating about a cute glistening slim body that has just emerged from a hot pool or from the steam room than the boys I used to see naked all those years ago in Bangkok's go-go bars. Stripping away the sex, it was always possible to see naked boys in the onsen dotted all around Japan. But you could rarely be sure they would only be young guys for attending an onsen is a Japanese ritual and all ages attend. I was not interested in looking at a bunch of older men! If there were onsen exclusively for young people, I never found them. In Taipei, on the other hand, there is at least one hot spring on the outskirts of the city which attracts mostly young guys, most of them gay. Here again sex is not part of the experience, although there may be a little hanky panky in the steam room despite the notice outside saying no playing around. Even though I am now in that much older group which I disliked in Japanese onsen, in Taipei there seems no discrimination about age. Indeed, the one I always attend is rather like a social club. Everyone is there for an enjoyable time drifting between the five pools of differing temperatures. There are parts of each where it is easy to see who has just entered and goes to the shower area. It's also easy to see which pool they enter. More than once I have zeroed in on a young guy I have found particularly attractive and gone to sit next to him. After a reasonable pause, I will even start to chat. Most Taiwanese can speak at least a little English and I have rarely found any not prepared to chat if only for a little while. One guy I met and the partner he was later to find have become very good friends. If particularly attracted to a guy and that attraction is mutual, it is easy to swap phone numbers to arrange to return to your hotel or hook up on another day. Or even just to discover a new restaurant and enjoy a meal sitting next to the nearest thing to a demi-god! Not that sex is always out of my mind nowadays. Far from it. t's just that there is no need to go to a hot spring for sex because there is so much available elsewhere. As in every city, you only have to know where to look! Now if only borders would open again soon, I will very quickly be on a plane first to Taipei and then to Vietnam. No need to guess why!

Happy landings - the proper ones!! Many years ago, being aware that in aircraft accidents involving fire a majority of victims die from smoke inhalation before they can get to the exits, I did some research and found a company which specialised in manufacturing proper smoke hoods. These provided up to 15 minutes of breathable air, time enough to escape from a burning plane. The equipment was called Evac-U-8 manufactured by a Canadian company. So I purchased two, one for my apartment and one for flying. They were cylindrical, about the size of an old Coca Cola can. Slightly bulky but I felt they could save my life if ever I found myself in a fire. When I stupidly left one on a plane, I purchased another. They did make me feel safer and fortunately I did not have to use one. In fact, I was doubly fortunate. After I had been carrying one around for about 5 years, the product was found to have a defect and recalled. Refunds were promised but the manufacturer went bust. At one time there was a discussion somewhere about the desire for all passenger aircraft to have smoke hoods in every seat. This was ditched due to cost.

It was indeed a horrible accident that, like the Concorde crash, did not need to happen. To give a bit more of the background than on that short video, most of the planes at Tenerife airport that afternoon were not supposed to be there. Their destination had been Gran Canaria about 100 kms away. But a terrorist bomb had gone off at Gran Canaria airport around 1:00 pm. As a result, the airport was closed. The nearest airport was Tenerife, a much smaller airport cut out of a hillside that was not really equipped to handle 747 aircraft but the runway was just long enough for them to land and take off. So most of the aircraft destined for Gran Canaria were diverted there. These included five wide body aircraft including the Pan Am and KLM 747s. Apart from its runway, Tenerife had just one taxiway from the Terminal with 4 linking off ramps from the main runway. With limited parking facilities, Tenerife's apron quickly became saturated and could take no more aircraft. Pan Am had arrived first. KLM a little later. The KLM 747 was parked behind the Pan Am aircraft. So Pan Am could only move once the KLM flight had moved away from its position. As the delay got longer and longer, many passengers and aircraft crew became visibly pissed off. Then cloud started coming down from the hill in front of the airport, basically ensuring no aircraft could take off until it at least partially cleared. Not to scale map of Tenerife airport from wikipedia with the crash point marked with the red star Once Gran Canaria had reopened, the Tenerife controllers tried to get the delayed planes away as quickly as possible. But the airport had no ground radar. Worse, the pilots had no experience of the airport. Pan Am was all set to go, but was stuck behind the KLM 747 whose captain had decided to save time at Gran Canaria by refuelling at Tenerife. So Pan Am had to wait an extra 30 minutes before the refuelling truck was out of the way and KLM ready to taxi to the end of the runway. With part of the taxiway also blocked, KLM had to use the main runway for taxing before turning at the end and standing by. Just before then, Pan Am was also given instructions to taxi on the main runway and then turn off at Exit No. 3. To be certain, they asked the controller for confirmation, He very clearly said "number three - one, two three." By a stroke of terrible luck, there was still fog, the runway exits were not marked and the Pan Am crew became disorientated. They passed Exits 1 and 2 but then seemed to become confused. They missed Exit 3 and so continued taxiing expecting to find it quickly. Because of the lack of ground radar, air traffic control had little idea where the 747s were. Juggling so many aircraft, the controller also seemed to become unsure of his instructions. Once at the end of the runway and ready to take off, the highly experienced KLM captain said he was ready for take off. The controller confirmed this and his message included "stand by, I will call you." But due to bad maintenance of the radio equipment, part of the full message was garbled. The controller then instructed Pan Am to report when he was clear of the runway. The KLM flight crew heard this exchange but interpreted it to mean that Pan Am was already clear of the runway. So the KLM captain, despite some concerns raised by his co-pilot, decided to take off. As is shown in the vdo, Pan Am had only just reached Exit 4. Seeing the KLM plane bearing down on them out of the fog, the crew added full throttle. But this takes about six seconds to have an effect. Even though the KLM captain attempted to take off well before he had reached his scheduled take off speed, the two 747s inevitably collided. The Accident Report found that the primary cause was the KLM captain taking off without formal clearance. It was suggested that he was extremely anxious to do so because of new maximum duty hours recently put in place by KLM. He was afraid his crew and the aircraft might end up being stuck at Gran Canaria overnight. Other factors played into the accident including the fog, the extra delay caused by the KLM captain's decision to refuel at Tenerife to save time and incorrect communications to and from air traffic control. As Captain Hutchinson says in the Concorde vdo, most aircraft accidents result from a combination fo circumstances. This was certainly true with what is still the world's deadliest passenger aircraft accident.

Astonishingly, although the aircraft was flying low to the ground to demonstrate its agility, it was carrying 136 passengers and crew, 3 of whom died. It was supposed to fly at 100 ft. above the runway with undercarriage down. In fact, reports say it was only at 30 ft. and then could not climb fast enough to avoid the trees. The official BEA Report is also controversial as it maintained flying at 30 ft off the ground was not a deliberate action of the pilot. However, he was found guilty along with others and sentenced to 10 months in prison. There were also reports that the flight recorder might have been tampered with and 4 seconds cut from the tape. This reminds me of a Cathay Pacific 777 pilot who was fired 3 years ago. He was at Boeing's Paine Field to pick up a new 777ER and fly it to Hong Kong. On board were 60 VIPs including Cathay Pacific's Chairman. Apparently it is not uncommon for pilots picking up new aircraft to buzz the ground after departure as a way of saying goodbye to the airport staff. This pilot did the stunt at only 30 feet off the ground without the undercarriage down. Such flybys require approval from the airline and air traffic control. It is believed neither had been obtained. Looking at this short, vdo, I'm not sure I would like to have been on that plane!

I am not sure to which priest you night be referring. There was one English gay bar owner in the early 2000s who had been a lay member of the Church of England with, I believe, some title or other. But I do not think he had ever been outed. He lived in Bangkok running his X-treme bar in Soi Twilight. I recall he had the most lovely student boyfriend.